World

Amendment to Defund NSA Phone Surveillance Program Is Defeated

An amendment to stop the NSA's bulk collection of Americans' phone records was narrowly defeated by the U.S. House of Representatives on Thursday evening with a vote tally of 205 "yeas" and 217 "nays."

The amendment (PDF) had been introduced by Republican libertarian Rep. Justin Amash (R-Mich.). Its goal was to end the NSA's "blanket collection" of Americans' phone records, as revealed in documents leaked by Edward Snowden in early June.

The so-called Amash Amendment received strong support from Internet activists, which tried to rally citizens to defund the NSA program that sweeps up telephone metadata on Americans' phone calls.

"We're here to answer one question for the people we represent," Amash said on the floor of the House, calling for congressmen and women to vote "yea" to his amendment. "Do we oppose the suspicionless collection of every American phone records. When you had the chance to stand up for Americans' privacy, did you?”

There was a broad coalition of Democrats and Republicans opposing the bill who stressed the importance of a program that helped fight terrorism, while collecting "just metadata."

"Have 12 years gone by and our memories faded so badly we forgot what happened in 9/11?" said Mike Rogers (R-Mich.), voicing his opposition. "Fifty-four times, this and the other program stopped and thwarted terrorist attack both here and in Europe. Saving real lives."

The notion that so-called metadata (data on what numbers a phone has called, at what time, and for how long) is not as intrusive as collecting actual content has been disputed by manyexperts before. What's more, there is no consensus, nor clear proof that the phone-records collection program was key to thwarting many attacks, according to reports.

The representatives who sided with Amash hail from both aisles; they emphasized that the amendment draws a necessary line between terrorist suspects and regular Americans, as the current program collects all records, and does not make that distinction.

Jim Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.), the principal author of the Patriot Act, expressed his "strong support" for the bill. "Unlike what we've heard from speakers on the other side of this issue, this amendment does not stop the collection of data under Section 215 to people who are subject to an investigation," he said. "What it does do is prevent the collection of people who are not subject to an investigation."

On Tuesday night, the White House lobbied Congress to vote down the amendment. White House spokesman Jay Carney said, "This blunt approach is not the product of an informed, open or deliberative process. We urge the House to reject the Amash amendment, and instead move forward with an approach that appropriately takes into account the need for a reasoned review of what tools can best secure the nation."

Despite Congress voting down the amendment, Internet freedom and privacy advocates applauded the effort, and said that the close loss means "the tide is turning," as David Segal, executive director of Demand Progress, an organization that actively promotes the amendment, said in a statement.

Even Senator Mark Udall (D-Colo.), one of two U.S. senators that for years warned against NSA surveillance, underlined that the close loss was a sign that there is growing bipartisan support to reign in the surveillance powers granted by the Patriot Act.

"National security is of paramount importance, yet the NSA's dragnet collection of Americans' phone records violates innocent Americans' privacy rights and should not continue as it exists today," Udall said in an emailed statement to reporters. "The U.S. House of Representatives' bipartisan vote today [on the] proposal should be a wake-up call for the White House. I am urging the president and the NSA to join this growing bipartisan coalition and work with Congress to focus the NSA's surveillance efforts on terrorists and spies — not innocent Americans."

Speaker of the House John Boehner, on the other hand, was relieved. "The House did the right thing," he said.

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